Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- With Grand Theft Auto 6 poised to take over the world, I reached out to Jack Thompson and it did not go well – PC Gamer (2026)
- Vib-Ribbon: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- Diablo IV PC Cooled With Real Human Blood Is Still Going Strong Two Years Later, Says Guy Who Won It – Aftermath (2026)
Most Recent: PSP
The Next Level: The Games of March 2011
Ah, March. You’re coming in like a lion, all right… but you’re going out like one, too. Not only are there a ton of awesome games coming out, but there’s also the highly anticipated arrival of Nintendo’s new handheld hardware, the 3DS. More than a few franchises are getting new chapters this month, too. The Warp Zoned staff got together to share what games and tech they’re most looking forward to in March. (more…)
Sony drums up Patapon 3’s release on April 12
Just pretend for a second that you’ve had enough of the war drums, armies of little doodle-y heroes, and rhythmic button combinations. Okay, now think logically, because there is no such thing as ‘enough.’ Sony knows this, and acknowledges the success of the last two Patapon games with Patapon 3, due out on PSP UMD and PSN April 12th.
Players will take form of the “Uberhero Patapon,” a symbiosis between your character – The Mighty One – and a fallen Patapon soldier. Though the game promises to be quite similar to the last two Patapon adventures, Patapon 3’s development team strived to incorporate feedback received from the players of Patapon 3’s beta.
Personally, I can’t wait to push Square, Square, Square, Circle, and get a move on with my Uberhero Patapon!
Dissidia 012 pre-order bonuses unlock alternate costumes for Cloud and Tifa
The pre-order bonuses for Tetsuya Nomura’s latest assault on logical game titles, Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy, have been detailed, and offer new costumes for two of the series’ most beloved characters.
Fans of Kingdom Hearts will be pleased to know that Cloud’s darker iteration in the Final Fantasy/Disney cross-over will be available via download code when you pre-order the game from GameStop. Amazon junkies will be able to unlock an “enforcer” costume for Tifa Lockheart from Final Fantasy VII, based on illustration’s by the beloved series character designer Yoshitaka Amano. As Nomura designed the characters for FFVII, not Amano, the costume is somewhat of a cool “what if” for more die hard connoisseurs.
Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy will be available on March 22 for the PSP. No news if Square’s recent attention to the PSN will lead to a digital release, but the last Dissidia was available on the PlayStation Store.
Posted in News, PSP
Tagged Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy
Fallout: New Vegas “Dead Money” DLC, Xenogears added to PlayStation Store
Sony has performed their weekly update to the PlayStation Store and dropped a ton of DLC onto gamer’s laps… especially those that love RPGs and games with RPG elements.
The big release this week is the addition of the “Dead Money” DLC expansion for Fallout: New Vegas. The pack was previously exclusive to the Xbox 360, but Bethesda has said that all future expansions will be released simultaneously on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. But for fans of classic RPGs, the bigger news is that Xenogears has been added to the PSone Classics section of the shop. The game is currently selling for over $100 on eBay, so the PlayStation Store’s $9.99 price tag is incredible.
More RPG fun can be found in two of the demos uploaded this week. Sega has released a demo of Yakuza 4, their open world game with RPG elements; while EA has added a demo of Dragon Age II. Non-RPG demos Lego Star Wars III and MLB 11: The Show.
As far as new releases go, Sony has added a trio of titles: Space Ace, a spiritual sequel to Dragon’s Lair; Days of Thunder: NASCAR Edition, a racing game based on the 20 year old movie; and Alien Breed 3: Descent, a good old-fashioned space shooter.
Finally, the voting for the first annual PSN Gamer’s Choice Awards has begun. Don’t forget to vote!
More information on all of this week’s new releases can be found after the break and all the details about this week’s game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation.Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PSP
Tagged Fallout: New Vegas, Xenogears
New Releases: Killzone 3, Bulletstorm, De Blob 2, More
Two pairs of heavyweights in their respective genres go head-to-head in this week’s new releases.
First up, we have the launch two major first person shooters… Sony’s continued fight against the Helghast in Killzone 3 (PS3) versus Epic Games’ latest fragfest, Bulletstorm (PC, PS3, Xbox 360). Don’t forget, the Xbox 360 version of Bulletstorm comes in an “Epic Edition” that inlcudes a few in-game goodies and access to the Gears of War 3 beta.
The next fight is a little less high profile (and both games come from the same publisher), but in a battle between handheld RPGs… Atlus is bringing Radiant Historia to the DS and also bringing Ys I & II Chronicles to the PSP.
Standing alone is THQ’s De Blob 2 (DS, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360), which would probably be a unique title at any time of the year.
The full list of the rest of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in DS, News, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Bulletstorm, De Blob 2, Killzone 3, Radiant Historia
January 2011 NPD report: We all just got served
I always considered sales to be the lowest possible form of gaming conversation, but with NPD eliminating numbers from their public reports, it’s more like a pure representation of what the popular trends are in gaming.
And that trend is dance. Four games in the software top ten for January were dance games: Just Dance 2 (#2), Zumba Fitness (#5), Dance Central (#8), and Michael Jackson: The Experience (#9). While peripheral rocking may be on the way out, the music genre as a whole is alive and well, in fact you could argue that the dance games of today are the new band games of yesteryear, grossing exorbitant revenue and achieving a massive base. However, it signals that our medium of interactive entertainment is being taken over by genres we would not traditionally call video games and titles that simply don’t appeal to us. As the Japanese say, “it can’t be helped,” and I guess it’s a good thing overall if cores games are still financially healthy.
And indeed they are. Dead Space 2 (#3), Little Big Planet 2 (#4), and DC Universe Online (#10) made their debut in the top ten the same month as launching. Michael Jordan’s tongue-lashing exploits in NBA 2K11 (#6) returned, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (#7) snuck around and Call of Duty: Black Ops claimed the top spot, nearly three months after launch. This figure is augmented as all platforms are combined into one figure, so I can’t comment on how much that Nintendo DS port contributed.
Also absent are console figures, but that didn’t stop Microsoft from their customary spin installment. While both the PS3 and Xbox 360 are performing better than this time last year, Microsoft revealed 381,000 units sold, proclaiming the 360 as “the leading game console in 2011,” a statement which is pretentious after only January, unsubstantiated without any regional qualifier, and probably wrong considering the Nintendo DS is very much a game console, regardless of what Aaron Greenberg wishes you believed.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood leads BAFTA noms with seven
Somebody alert the world, a Brotherhood of assassins has infiltrated the British Academy Video Games Awards. Ubisoft’s stealthy sequel, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, garnered seven nominations, more than any other game, including one for Best Game.
Other big honorees from this year’s Video Games Awards include Call of Duty: Black Ops, Heavy Rain (six nominations apiece) and Mass Effect 2 (four nominations).
Awarded annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the winners of this year’s Video Games Awards will announced in a ceremony on March 16.
The full list of every nominee and every award up for grabs can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Call of Duty: Black Ops, God of War III, Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 2, Super Mario Galaxy
A Eulogy For Guitar Hero: The Day the (Plastic) Music Died
A wise man once said that it’s far better to burn out than fade away. Apparently Activision agreed with the sentiment, as after a bit more than five years of rapid-fire releases, the company has shuttered the Guitar Hero franchise. Just 40 months ago the music gaming business was at its absolute peak – Guitar Hero III sold roughly 2.45 bazillion copies across a half-dozen platforms – but now the series is in complete shambles, what with the latest installment releasing with the authority of a farting ant. This legendary tumble from grace is no doubt why the company canceled the forthcoming Guitar Hero 7 and put the entire series on hold, perhaps permanently. Rather than harp on all that went wrong and led to its untimely demise, let’s discuss what went right – and what the future may hold if Activision dares to bring the music back. (more…)
Posted in DS, Features, Mobile, PS2, PS3, PSP, Top Story, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Guitar Hero: World Tour